Voters' call on bond to build new schools

Class overflow: Issue in Jackson

Posted: Wednesday, September 15, 2004

By Beth Hatcherbeth.hatcher@onlineathens.com

JEFFERSON - Voters will take to the polls Tuesday to decide on a $70 million bond referendum to fund four new schools, land acquisition and several classroom additions for the Jackson County School System, which is bursting at the seams amid a county population boom.

Advance voting started this week and runs until Friday for all Jackson County residents except those living in Jefferson and Commerce - both cities have their own school systems.

The Jackson County School System plans to repay the obligation bond with property-tax revenue over a 20-year period.

Commissioner Emil Beshara estimates that property owners would see their tax rate rise by about 3 mills a year, which means that someone owning a $150,000 house would pay an extra $173 per year if the bond referendum passes.

Schools Superintendent Andy Byers said the system plans to use $30 million in bond revenue for a new, 1,850-student high school in eastern Jackson County, $12 million for a 750-student middle school in south Jackson and $16 million for two new elementary schools in the western part of the county.

The system also plans to use $6 million pay for classroom additions at South Jackson and Maysville Elementary Schools and $6 million for land acquisition for future school construction, Byers said Tuesday.

If the bond doesn't pass, the school system's most crowded schools might have to move to split schedules within a few years, Byers said.

Byers said some demographers have predicted the 6,000-student system could double in number by 2010. Fueled by the county's booming residential growth, the 11-school system has grown by 6 percent a year since 1990, when seven schools held less than 3,000 students, Byers said.

"Suddenly, houses and subdivisions are exploding everywhere," he said.

The Jackson County government issued 810 permits for single family, stick-built homes between September 2003 and September 2004, compared to 425 in 1998. And according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county's population grew by 13 percent between 2000 and 2003, from 41,589 residents to 46,998 people. Jackson County's population in 1990 was only 30,005.

Those numbers are hitting the Jackson County School System with increasing speed.

Between May and August alone, the system saw an increase of 406 students.

"An additional 400 students is like adding a whole new school to our system," Byers said.

Currently, Jackson County Comprehensive High School on Georgia Highway 11 in west Jefferson is among the system's most crowded schools. The school shoves 1,630 students into a 1,250-capacity building, and officials there have to shuttle about 400 students every period to the Gordon Street Center, the site of a day alternative school and an evening high school located about 2 miles away on the east side of Jefferson.

On Tuesday outside the high school as parents waited to pick up their children, thoughts on the bond referendum were mixed.

Elissa Eubanks/Staff

Ashley King, left, and Maria Mendoza, freshmen at Jackson County Comprehensive High School, sit in the cafeteria Tuesday at the Gordon Street Center in Jefferson.

Liza Edwards, who has two children at the high school and another child at one of the county's two middle schools, said that she'll vote yes to the bond, even if it means higher taxes.

"I don't want to pay more, but we need more schools," Edwards said.

But Kim Kyst, whose family just moved to Jackson from Gwinnett County, said she's not for the bond.

Kyst, who has two children in the Jackson system - one in high school, one in middle school - said she thinks it's unfair that newcomers like her could force long-time residents to shoulder the burden of new growth.

"They need to impact the builders," she said.

Jackson County doesn't levy impact fees right now, but even if it did, they wouldn't help the school system.

Byers said that Georgia law prevents school systems from levying or benefiting from impact fees. Under the 1990 Georgia Development Impact Fee law, local governments can impose fees on developers to help pay infrastructure expenses like sewer service and roads caused by new residential construction - but the money can't go to schools.

Byers said he wouldn't mind seeing the law change to allow school systems use impact-fee money.

It's a change Beshara would also like to see. The county commissioner doesn't support impact fees under the current law, but said Tuesday he would if the law was changed to allow schools to benefit.

Lynne Wheeler, chairwoman of Citizens for a Better Education, a group created to support the bond referendum, said she knows how important good environments are to learning, because as a retired educator she has had to teach split sessions and she's had to teach in trailer classrooms.

But Wheeler, who July 20 won the Post 4 seat on the Jackson County Board of Education, said she'd also like to see better communication between board members and commissioners to better plan growth in an effort to help keep the exploding population from overloading the school system.

Even if the bond passes, however, the Jackson County School System won't be able to move students into new schools for another two and a half years, Byers said. Until the schools are finished, the system will probably have to buy more trailer classrooms, which can cost up to $20,000 each.

Revenue plan

Here's a breakdown of the proposed uses for revenue from a $70 million school bond referendum Jackson County residents will vote on Tuesday.